• WATER Resources Management Authority chairperson Ed Chomba (right) introduces Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma (centre) to Global Water Partnership Southern African regional executive secretary Ruth Beukman in Lusaka yesterday.
Picture by CHUSA SICHONE.

By CHUSA SICHONE –

MINES, Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma was yesterday angered by the absence of representatives from the  Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) and National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) at the national stakeholders meeting on water.
Before delving into his written speech, Mr Yaluma asked if there were representatives from NWASCO and LWSC and got upset when he discovered that the two institutions did not have representatives among the participants.
“I don’t like such kind of behaviour,” Mr Yaluma said.
He wondered why NWASCO and LWSC did not send representatives to such a critical national meeting where their input was needed.
He said he expected NWASCO to avail its representatives as it was a regulator of utility companies as well as representation from LWSC as utility companies were performing poorly.
Mr Yaluma said currently the proportion of the country’s population with access to safe water supply in rural areas stood at 66 per cent while it was 82 per cent in urban areas.
He said the proportion of the population with access to adequate sanitation in rural and urban areas was 51 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.
“Government’s vision is that these percentages be increased to over 80 per cent for both water and sanitation by 2016. This can be evidenced by the programmes that are being implemented,” he said.
Mr Yaluma cited the measures being implemented as the National Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme and Water Resources Infrastructure Development Programmes, among others.
On the achievements recorded, Mr Yaluma said Government had created an enabling environment which provided the legal and institutional frameworks for the water sector as evidenced by the development of the Revised National Water Policy and the Water Resources Management Act.
He also cited the development of the Water and Sanitation Policy by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, which had reached an advanced stage.
United Nations Development Programme climate change adviser Excellent Hachileka said Zambia had made good progress in providing clean drinking water, but that lack of adequate sanitation in rural and urban areas posed a challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation by 2015.